The present invention relates to a composition comprising a fluoroalkyl phosphonate and a binder.
Block resistance is the capability of a paint not to stick to itself. For example, good block resistance helps keep a door from sticking to the door jamb or a window from sticking to its frame. Block resistance is achieved in waterborne paint formulations through block additives such as fluorinated alkyl surfactant that contains a high concentration of fluorine. These highly fluorinated compounds typically give better performance in architectural coatings compositions than those containing lower fluorine levels. Unfortunately, the better performing surfactants are more costly to produce and tend to be environmentally unfriendly. One such popular class of surfactants is fluroalkyl phosphates, which suffer from a number of drawbacks: Fluoroalkyl phosphates are difficult to prepare as pure compounds—their preparation is inherently non-selective resulting in significant amounts of undesirable dialkyl phosphates; second, phosphates in general are susceptible to degradation through hydrolysis; third, regulatory pressures have resulted in the phasing out of C8 and above perfluorinated hydrocarbons and compounds bearing this substituent, such as CF3(CF2)7CH2CH2OPO3−2, which is targeted to be banned as an additive in binder systems in 2015. Accordingly, it would be desirable to find efficient fluorinated surfactants that overcome the objections to fluoroalkyl phosphates while maintaining or improving the block performance of binders.